THE Department of Tourism (DOT) will be crowdsourcing its advertisements and TV commercials (TVCs) this year, as it hopes to put out more innovative and original promotion materials.
In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Katherine De Castro, tourism undersecretary for the Office of Public Affairs, Communications and Special Projects said, “We are thinking of crowdsourcing our next ads and get the public to comment or vote [for the materials] so the public can own it.” The government agency, though, has yet to finalize the terms of reference for any bidding or crowdsourcing for the new TVCs.
The DOT is also currently finalizing the award of a contract to a new web-site developer, said de Castro, who also chairs the government agency’s bid and awards committee (BAC). The cost of the “Development of the DOT Website Project” is about P17 million, according to DOT Undersecretary Benito C. Bengzon Jr., who now oversees the information-technology department of the agency.
However, he failed to send details of the project, which were also not available on the DOT web site. The site routinely lists requests for proposals and bids for materials, supplies and projects. Nor was it on the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System, the government portal that lists down all available government projects for bidding.
“The bidding was posted on the Philgeps web site in the first quarter of the year,” said de Castro, for her part. “There is a lone bidder but they will present to us yet. If it passes the evaluation of the BAC, then we will award,” she added.
In November 2016 the DOT web site (www.tourism.gov.ph) was deactivated for a few days, after its cover page (www.itsmorefuninthephilippines.com) went offline due to the suspension of its account. (See, “Stakeholders ‘mourn’ death of DOT site”, in the BusinessMirror, November 2, 2016.) Frequent users also often complain of the DOT’s site unsightly and boring graphics, as well as information that are not updated.
Meanwhile, still being played in the country’s tourism source markets abroad is the “Anak” TVC, where a foreign traveler is seen interacting with a host Filipino family against the backdrop of the Blue Lagoon, a famous local destination in Surigao del Sur. The mother in the family, repeatedly calls him “anak”, as she offers him food. The traveler then asks his tour guide what anak means, and is told that it is “my child” in English.
The TVC ends with a quote from travel blogger and model Jack Ellis: “When you’re with Filipinos, you’re with family.” It also carries the hashtag #WhenWithFilipinos, which is hoped to go viral the way #ItsMoreFunInThePhilippines brand campaign did when it was launched in 2012. But the DOT has stressed the “It’s More Fun…” slogan is still the country’s brand campaign.
A new TVC is immediately needed as the “Anak” run is expected to wind down by September. It was launched during the Miss Universe 2016 beauty pageant, held in January.
It would be recalled that advertising agency McCann Worldwide Group had recently produced a TVC for the DOT, titled “Sights”, showing a blind Japanese tourist enjoying the tourism destinations in the North, such as the sand dunes of Paoay and Calle Crisologo in Vigan.
A social-media outcry, however, followed the airing of the ad by the DOT as it had glaring similarities with a tourism ad by South Africa. The DOT had asked McCann to publicly apologize for the oversight but the advertising firm did not. The DOT canceled the P650-million contract of McCann, which was awarded last year.